All user reviews for the Mapex VENUS SERIES

Okay, I would be very surprised to find a better entry-level kit especially after seeing that you can buy these for $200!! I originally bought mine for drummers to come over and jam with me on guitar.….I replaced the original snare with a 1960's Slingerland snare and I use a DrumDial to tune the Remo Coated Ambassadors….they are booming!! I also have some 1976 WMP Ludwigs and with the same heads, all tuned up they are neck and neck…..and like previously mentioned by other reviewers, this kick drum really slams…When it was time to record, I would go to C.A. House Music in St. Clairsville, Ohio to buy new heads and have Tim Siedler tune it up….Tim is a legendary drummer in that area and every time he was done tuning them he would give them 2 or 3 really hard whacks and mention how good they sounded….

Being drumming since 1992 and had a few kits in that time (First was a Maxwin 5pce from the 70's RIP), But by the early 2000's when that kit was no longer up to the punishment of metal drumming (Death/Grind) I needed a new kit on a budget.
Went to the local drum shop in Melbourne (Aus) Drummers Paradise, to see what $1000 would buy me. (June 2003)
At the time i knew Mapex were around a while and seen some drummers play them and they sounded good, and top drummers were starting to use them.
Mapex Venus Series rock size kit was there (Black of course!) for $999 so i thought why not try it. I mainly play Tama since 2006, but this kit holds up quite well for value, sound, quality & durability.
Of course i change skins after a couple of months of beating them to death (I'm a heavy hitter) to Remo's and now Evan's (Best!). I normal tune low & dead for metal, Bass drum fat & punchy, doomy toms & cracking mid-range snare.
And it sound great, although i admit the snare is not the greatest and hated it at first, taking a few years to get it right instead of a few minutes. The kick pedal was very standard, but since i use double kick pedals it rarely got used.
Since getting the Tama kit, it's been primarily use for live gigs in rock covers, grind/thrash/death metal bands, as the Tama is the stay home setup in the bedroom kit (Too big to travel). Hi-hat & cymbal stands are fine. All in bags too.
I recently brought a second kick drum as well as a 8" & 10" tom to make a big 8pce metal live kit out of it.
Due for a good clean & new skins and she be good again.
Think it was meant to be a Beginners/Advanced kit, I was at the advance state by year 2000 so it was a good step up. But i guess it be fine for most people.
Keeping this kit for a very long time now I've expanded it!
Make great for 1st kit. Enjoy!

I have been playing for eight years and the Venus series was my first kit. I have used it in a number of bands including punk rock, doom metal (early playing), indi/prog rock, and finally in funk and jazz bands.

Picked this up at the local music shop for about $550.

First off, I can't say enough about the bass drum it has great sound/resonance for live gigs and often I use it instead of my 1976 Ludwig set's bass drum for recording purposes. Also, durability is a huge asset to the Venus series. back when I was just starting out and didn't know how to properly care for my drums in transit to and from gigs this set held strong and continues to do so to this day! Of course these days I know better than to not use cases and/or keep the drums in a hot/cold car for an extended period of time (it really pains me to of think how dumb I was back then).

The stock snare and pedal were trash. But after all you normally buy a set for the toms and bass drum (occasionally a good snare comes with but usually its terrible stock stuff). Replace those items and it sounded great (also replacing the stock heads with Remo coated ambassadors helped a lot). Also the tom mount configuration was quite cumbersome and eventually I just switched to a free mounted system (which I highly recommend).

Great, already covered that!

Great first kit too bad they don't make them anymore I would for sure buy one for my nephew. Great playability too!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this kit from ADC Drums. It was an ex demo kit so i got it for half price even though it only had a few stick marks on the skins. All together this kit cost me £600 with a set of Sabian Pro Sonix Cymbals.

I love the Bass Drum on this kit and also the nice heavy duty stands you get with it. I also love the overall ambient sound, much better than its rival Pearl Forum kit which is an extra 100 quisd on the price.

I hate the bass pedal. Its POOR!! im gonna get an Iron Cobra by Tama. other than this its all good and a great kit to play.

Its Great Quality for the price the only thing is the tom mount is pretty annoying but its only my opinion, you may like it .

GO GET ONE ALL YOU DRUMMERS OUT THERE WITH 400 QUID TO SPARE. YOU WONT REGRET IT!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this kit from my local drum retailer. I payed about £600 for 3 toms, snare, bass drum cymbals and hardware. The tome sizes are 10" 12" 14" bass drum is 22" and the snare is 14".

Well this was the first kit i have bought and its still playing great. The sound of the toms with some later added remo emperor drum skins is brilliant. They sing really well and with some help from some resenance dampeners i have got the sound i like. The snare sounds good too. This kit is gig worthy.

One of the only things i dont like about the kit is the tom mount system. I dislike tom mounts that come out of the bass drum. But other than that its a great little kit.

This kit is well made, what else can i say?


This kit is ideal for beginners or if your short on cash. Well worth every penny i payed. So what are you waiting for? Go and buy one!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I've been using it for a year and I'm entirely satisfied with it! Mapex is faithful to its brand by offering resistant drums with an incomparable sound! The only snag are the drumheads of the toms and snare, which unfortunately aren't of the best quality! The only solution is to change them and get that perfect sound you love!

I love especially its finish and design, not to forget its unrivaled sound quality.
The only negative point is that is comes with only one cymbal stand and no cymbals.

Before this one, I tried two other models (a pearl (very good as well) and a basix (awful))

Its value for money is quite decent and it's worth investing in it!!!
To finish, I think I would buy it again without hesitating a single second!

I've used this kit for two years as rehearsal drums at my place. I have it thanks to a combination of factors during an auction. I paid $390 for a standard kit, 22"/12"/13"/16"+14"*5.5" wooden snare with accessories, etc (I changed the 13" drum for a 10" one, so I have 22"/10"/12"/16"), everything new (one man's loss is another man's gain... ;op). I don't know anything beyond this MAPEX and at this price, I won't be finicky about it. Besides, that day I also got an evans/remo drumhead set (60 heads for $50...LOL!! What could be better?), which has allowed me to dress it up nicer than it was originally. I'm not disappointed, far from that. I expected a really cheap sound but I was positively surprised:
- The snare is very average, with a pretty common sound that suits many styles. To be honest, the only thing I don't like is that is doesn't have a good sustain during tuning.
-The toms need to be hit really hard to sound good, but when you do their sound is nice. You'll have to not strain too much the drumheads or you'll have quite nasty harmonics. And they have the same problem as the snare: weak sustain during tuning, but hey, nothing is perfect!
-The nicest surprise was the kick drum, with a deep, punchy sound. I use it without anything inside, which I don't usually do, but the front drumhead is closed and the beater head is a Powerstroke 3. It produces a very light resonance, which is great for rock or Afro-Cuban music.
-The accessories are well-made and relatively stable, I nevertheless use an iron cobra pedal instead of the mapex. The tom clamps weren't conceived to mount and dismount them 2-3 times per week for a year, nor the bass drum spurs, for that matter. Otherwise your kit won't live longer than 2-3 years, tops,

A good small drum set that I would easily take to play in a small café, given its qualities, which make it a nice, almost endearing instrument.
I admit that it even sparked my interest for MAPEX gear. ;op